In developing residential building lots it has always been necessary for the developer or builder to have separate utility lines run to each home building lot. Each utility company such as the gas company, electric power company, water company, and telephone company must run separate lines from the main lines to the residence. Installation of each line requires placement of a conduit to carry the utility and a separate meter for each residence. These meters are not consistently located at each residence; for example, many homeowners do not know where their water meter and shutoff valve is located. When the lines are placed underground, separate trenching must occur for each utility from the main line to the location at the house where the utility line enters the structure. Utility meters such as electric or gas meters which require periodic reading are often inconveniently placed and difficult to find. Frequently, these meters are located in a fenced-in yard which may make accessability to the meter reader hazardous, for example, if a dog is in the yard.
Many other disadvantages arise from the usual location of the utility meters. For example, electric and gas meter shut-offs are generally immediately adjacent the residence, thereby causing significant danger in the event of a fire. Water meters are generally located below ground level and any leakage from the meter simply penetrates the ground. As a result, it is estimated that many millions of gallons of water a year are lost as a result of leaky water meters from which the leakage is not detected. In addition, in recent years, the rapid increase in costs of electric power has spawned substantial theft of power from the power company by homeowners who tamper with the electric meters in an effort to bypass the meters.
In general, pedestals for mounting utility meters are well known. For example, Sturdivan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,133 discloses an electrical meter pedestal which comprises a rectangular housing mounted on a cement pad and fabricated from a plurality of slidably engageable panels which can be used to form pedestals of different shapes and sizes. Whitman, U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,030, also shows a ground-mounted pedestal for a gas meter having a transparent window thru which the meter can be read. Another protective meter enclosure is shown in Fisher, U.S. Pat. No. 3,181,714. The pedestal described therein also is a weather resistant housing having a window therein for reading the meter.
It is also known to have mounting pedestals adapted to mount meters and junction boxes from various utilities on a single pedestal. For example, Nickola U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,538, shows a single post for a mobile home park for mounting a power box, electric meter, telephone box, the pedestal disclosed in this patent is useful only for a single trailer.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a multiple utility pedestal which will completely enclose metering devices for several different utilities. It is a further object of the invention to save time and money in trenching and locating utility conduits. It is a further object of the invention to provide a meter pedestal which is conveniently located and easily readable by the utility companies.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a utility meter pedestal which can hold the meters for at least two separate residential units. It is yet a further object of the invention to save equipment installation and parts cost by replacing certain parts associated with utility metering for multiple residence with a single part. These and other objects of the invention are achieved by the multiple utility pedestal, a specific and preferred mode of which is hereinafter described.